Sometimes doing the right thing is painful, and Yuuta is going through that right now. The thing about Rikka's "restoration" is that I don't think she's really given up anything. She's just doing what both Yuuta, Tooka, and her mother expect of her, or what would make THEM happy. That's why Yuuta feels like shit. He knows Rikka is completely miserable, but can't do anything for her so long as she's going through these motions. The contrast is supposed to be obvious. Yuuta and Nibutani got over their Chuuniibyou on their own, and look back on it with embarrassment. Rikka has been "forced" to give it up, because of her changing situation, and because the person she fell in love with is the one she's really doing this for. If Rikka had wanted to give this up for her mother or Tooka, she'd have done it a long time ago. Yuuta yelling at Dekomori was just icing on his guilt trip cake. He had to vent at someone, and unfortunately, Sanae was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

But what is the message? Is Yuuta going to allow her to slip back into her Chuunii self? I don't see much of a narrative directional recourse at this point. Unless Yuuta does something else to make Rikka happy as a "normal" girl, then that's it. And, if this is so, what was the ****ing point of all this? Slipping into your delusions is okay if you're going to be miserable anyway? I suppose it could be commentary on escapism even in adults, but... meh.

Rikka is changing for the "better", but it's not exactly based on free will. Yuuta and Rikka are somewhat denying their own feelings, overshadowing how this is all done in the best interests of Rikka's mom and sister. Indeed it's about change, and change is obviously hard, but the more pressing question is whether they're accepting their change willingly. The fact that she's cleaning her room even without knowing what are the stuff that she wants to throw out says a lot on how she's doing it not for herself. But, as TIF put it, if she goes back to her Wicked Eye thing again, their efforts are all for nothing. So, how are they going to cope with all this? We'll see.

But I'm quite surprised how Dekomori suddenly becomes this emotional figure to this plot. I didn't expect Dekomori's reaction to be so violent, although her childish outbursts are expected.

Personally, I feel that the ending was well done. The resolution on whether Rikka is still holding on to her Wicked Eye thing is not clearly revealed, although I want to believe that she's doing for the very last time before moving on for good. Otherwise, her efforts to moving on is all to waste. But truthfully, what she's been looking for all this time, which she claimed to be the Ethereal Horizon, is simply to acknowledge the fact that her dad is gone and make peace with herself.

Great ending, nonetheless... although in the end, I can't help but feel that Kumin is being a harmless troll in this episode.

--

My thoughts on Chuunibyou Demo Koi ga Shitai:

I think, like many others who watched it at first, many would agree with me that Chu2Koi started out weird. Very weird. The whole Wicked Eye/Dark Flame Master all seem like troll material, and I was just not sure where it's going with that sort of storytelling. It simply looked like K-ON where we simply see kids doing kid stuff. But when the drama starts rolling in, it began to show some depth and that's where I could start taking the show a little more seriously. The fact that Rikka was doing all that nonsense simply because she was being a kid (i.e. an expression of trying to deny reality) and not because of finding her identity was a small setback, but how the show resolved eventually ensured that the show remains good.

It's a weak 7/10 for me. To be honest, the story is nothing special; it's still basically your generic slice-of-life middle school rom-com with a small twist in the form of Eight Grader Syndrome. If I were to give credit, it's only to KyoAni because it really knows how to make full use of the limited material it has. Then again, KyoAni's flair and execution style has always been the reason why their shows are a success, no matter how you see it.

Sorry AC, I will agree that we will always be in disagreement. That ending was awful! For me, this show has left a very bad after-taste. I donít think this show can be categorized under slice-of-life. For that matter, I donít think this show knows what exactly it wants to do. This is why Iím so terrified of KyoAni because they always come up with awesome concepts that somehow in some magical phenomenon that they would find a way to ruin it. (Ex. Angel Beats) This show started out with slap-stick comedy and it should have stayed that way. 8th grade syndrome doesnít need a plot. And it certainly doesnít need all the drama at the end. I canít recommend this to harem fans. Watch the first two episodes and ignore the rest. 2/10 from me then.

I've wondered how exactly the show would go about with an "embrace the chuunibyou" ending, since the level of escapism that Rikka was partaking in clearly wasn't healthy. Personally I don't really like the ambiguity of the ending, but the message that it conveyed was pretty sound: it's perfectly acceptable to be a total chuunibyou, so long as it's simply what makes you happy and you're not doing it to escape reality.

The Series:

The comedy was well done all the way through, thanks to the likable characters and KyoAni's wonderful execution...save for the Isshiki episode, which vaguely felt like I was watching an episode of Sora no Otoshimono. The drama I had mixed feelings for, since often it was either a little too melodramatic, a little too cliche, or just not really clear at what was trying to be accomplished. The whole show didn't really seem like it knew what to do with itself, for that matter, but with the comedy that's acceptable.

It still managed to add a lot of depth to the characters though, so overall it was decent. I'll also give it a weak 7/10.

My final thoughts: It was a good show for me, lots of laugh and daaaaaw moments as expected from KyoAni. Not a lot from this show irks me to no end besides the Chuunibyou aspect which hit home a few times and even then it only serves to remind me how funnily awkward those times were. On my feels good rating of 1 to 10, I give this a 9 out of 10. Good show.

Good grief what a bland show in the end. I admit to missing an episode in there somewhere in the middle but as far as I can say Chuunibyou peaked really early with episode 2, which now that I think about it is really the only fun time I had watching this show. I've always found that Kyoani has a tendency to try a little to hard with their gag bits at times, often going so far as to have characters all but scream the joke and subsequent explanation while mugging at the screen so it was kind of refreshing to see a show from that felt like it had a more free flowing comedy style that didn't take itself too seriously or feel like it was trying to hard to be funny and witty. I give great credit to Jun Fukuyama here as I think he saved the show in it's early running at key points in the skits.

Unfortunately it did start to take itself too seriously in the end and I definitely agree it would have worked better as just a straight up comedy that pokes fun at the foibles of it's oddball cast. Kyoani has some good habits like the aforementioned attention to detail in animation (reminds me sometimes of how movies were done in the early 90's) but a lot of really bad ones I'd have thought they'd get over by now and unfortunately most end up on display yet again here in like the extremely hit or miss comedy efforts and obvious attempts to wring every last drop of raw emotion out of the audience that just comes off as shallow and farcical to me.

Unfortunately I just don't see these bad habits changing any time soon either given that what I find to be the studios greatest shortcomings seem to be held up by the powers that be in consumers in Japan as their greatest appeals. A shame cause I kind of do appreciate their efforts in animation, their storytelling though...needs improvement is an understatement.

I actually didn't mind the drama direction the show took about halfway in but after watching the ending I dunno. I enjoyed both the comedy and the drama but the split between the two, along with being a 1 cour show, made Chuunibyou seem underdeveloped. Reminded me a bit of Angel Beats, a series with a good sense of comedic timing hit sideways by an interesting drama, which would have been fine had it been developed over a course of time. Interesting premise, rushed execution. Which left me apathetic by the ending. Kinda sad, since I think KyoAni has a knack for making charming characters.

This in a nutshell. It didn't have a great start, but whereas Kyoto Animation anime would usually get better, Chuunibyo just degraded into a mess. For example, why does Kumin suddenly act massively out of character? Okay, it gives us a reason but it's pretty shit, and looks more like the show has gone "okay, we need a plot device, why can't Kumin act all 8th grader? **** the fact it's completely out of character!".

Yeah, I didn't get Kumin at all. While she was usually "ooh'ing and "ahh"ing over everybody else's Chuunibyou behavior, she never demonstrated any real desire to act up herself. It seems to me like she was trying to play the Anti-Nibutani role in this, deliberately trying to get Yuuta to bring Rikka back to the fold as she was. I mean what's all this bullshit about how Rikka's chuunibyou "saved" her? Delving into fantasy worlds because you're in denial about your old man and guilty about not saying goodbye when you had the chance is saving yourself? What was the alternative? We never get to see that.

So, instead of moving forward and growing up, she's miserable, and the only way to save her is for the Dark Flame Master to.... do what? What exactly did he do here? Show her it was okay to deny reality? Was she incapable of saying goodbye to her father unless Yuuta went delusional, too? I don't ****ing get it.

So, instead of moving forward and growing up, she's miserable, and the only way to save her is for the Dark Flame Master to.... do what? What exactly did he do here? Show her it was okay to deny reality? Was she incapable of saying goodbye to her father unless Yuuta went delusional, too? I don't ****ing get it.

The narrator outright says that the message is that we're all chuunibyou on the inside, and we should treasure it. Despite society's attempts to change us, we must not forget that inner child within us that believes that we are special. Of course, it doesn't help that the show portrayed the chuunibyou as a bunch of delusional whackjobs (also, I don't believe that anyone who acted that way back where I live would be let off with just a few raised eyebrows). The message it wants to present is sound (arguably), but the way the show executed it came off as unconvincing.

It was a fun show, I'll admit, but the shift from comedy to drama midway, while better than most, ended up dividing the focus that a show like this needs to be memorable. It was probably meant to be a deliberate contrast, but the shift still ends up feeling a bit jarring. Or maybe my expectations are just in a high after finishing Hyouka a while back...